Native American religions are the spiritual practices of the indigenous peoples of the Americas. Traditional Native American ceremonial ways can vary widely, and are based on the histories and beliefs of individual tribes, clans. Early European explorers describe individual Native American tribes and even small bands as each having their own religious practices, theology may be monotheistic, polytheistic, henotheistic, animistic, or some combination thereof. Traditional beliefs are passed down in the forms of oral histories, stories, allegories and principles. From the 1600s European Catholic and Protestant denominations sent missionaries to convert the tribes to Christianity and this forcible conversion and suppression of Indigenous languages and cultures continued through the 1970s. This government persecution and prosecution continued until 1978 with the passage of the American Indian Religious Freedom Act, some non-Native anthropologists estimate membership in traditional Native American religions in the 21st century to be about 9000 people. Many adherents of traditional spiritual ways also attend Christian services, at least some of the time, since the 80 years of those prior legal persecutions ended with AIRFA, some sacred sites in the United States are now protected areas under law. European Christian missionaries were active and established missions and religious schools among Native peoples. According to Jacob Neusner, Native American Christianity is often fundamentalist in theology, conservative in their practice, for example, St. David Pendleton Oakerhater, who was canonized as an Episcopal saint but was a Sun Dancer, as well. According to James Treat, Native American Christians have constructed and maintained their, Religious identities with a variety of considerations in mind. Many native Christians accomplish this identification without abandoning or rejecting native religious traditions. ”In response, in part Smith said, “In our zeal to tell you of the good news of Jesus Christ, we were closed to the value of your spirituality. We ask you to us and to walk together with us in the Spirit of Christ, so our peoples may be blessed. Two years after Smith’s Apology, the All Native Circle Conference was formed in 1988 as a conference of the United Church of Canada. It is “based on different Aboriginal cultural ways of life and languages. ”It understands and honours “the cultural values, mission and ministry of Native Peoples. ”The Earth Lodge Religion was founded in northern California and southern Oregon tribes such as the Wintun. It spread to such as the Achomawi, Shasta, and Siletz. It was also known as the Warm House Dance among the Pomo and it predicted occurrences similar to those predicted by the Ghost Dance, such as the return of ancestors or the worlds end. The Earth Lodge Religion impacted the later practice, the Dream Dance, belonging to the Klamath. Ghost Dance is a general term that encompasses different religious revitalization movements in the Western United States
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